Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)

Imperium of Man

Form of government	Dictatorship (Theocratic Oligarchy/Imperial Cult)
Official language	Low/ Imperial Gothic, High Gothic, Lingua Technis
Capital	Holy Terra (Earth)
Head of state	The God-Emperor of Mankind
Established	30,000 A.D.
Governing body	High Lords of Terra
Population	Unknown but vast, likely quadrillions
Military forces
Primary
Imperial Guard The Holy Fleet (Imperial Navy) Adeptus Astartes Titan Legions Planetary Defense Forces
Other
Adeptus Custodes Inquisition (Including Grey Knights, Deathwatch, and Adepta Sororitas) Adeptus Arbites

The Imperium of Man (Latin: Imperium Hominis) is a fictional galactic empire of over a million planets that contains the vast majority of humans in the forty-first millennium, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop.

Fictional background

In the fiction, the Imperium is depicted as a loose empire, nominally consisting of all human-inhabited worlds in explored space and united through imposed religious conviction, extreme xenophobia, militarism, fascism, despotic hierarchical rule, and threats of brutal disciplinary force. The founder of the Imperium, an enigmatic and mysterious persona known only as the 'Emperor of Mankind' is in theory the supreme ruler of this galaxy-spanning empire, although in practice the highest tier of command is the supreme council known as the High Lords, based on Terra (Earth in the 41st millennium A.D.), who have ruled for ten millennia under the Emperor's name, as the Emperor lays dormant on the Golden Throne in a nearly unresponsive state of hyper-focused attention to maintaining, among other things, the Astronomicon, a psychic navigational beacon dependent upon his powers alone.

References

• Chambers, Andy, Haines, Pete, and Hoare, Andy (2003). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Imperial Guard, 4th Edition, Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-410-8.
• Counter, Ben (2006). Dark Adeptus. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84416-242-7. 
• Abnett, Dan (2004). Eisenhorn. Nottingham: Black Library. ISBN 1-84416-156-0.